fyi from Siemens: To: Jerry Miller (2142 ) From: flickerful Saturday, Jun 6 1998 2:37AM ET Reply # of 2156
Siemens Prototype Reads E-Mail & Web Sites Over Phone Newsbyte News Network
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1998 JUN 5 (NB) Scientists at Siemens Corporate Research, Inc., have developed a prototype of a system that can read not only electronic mail but World Wide Web pages over a telephone using speech synthesis. A key to the Delivering Information in a Cellular Environment (DICE) system is an algorithm for analyzing the format of a document, so it can convey not only its content but its structure.
The current DICE system is a prototype and it is not clear when a commercial system might be released, spokesman Guy Pierce of Siemens told Newsbytes.
Siemens Corporate Research has three patents pending for technology that can analyze a Web page or e-mail and determine how to present the text so it is clear to the listener. Hyperlinks are identified, so that pressing a key on the telephone's touch-tone keypad allows you to jump to another Web page. Standard audio features such as pause, rewind, and fast forward are supported, as is the history list familiar to browser users, Siemens said.
DICE users will be able to install the software on their own computers and connect to them remotely by phone, or rely on a service provider running the software, Pierce said. Users will be able to set up their own bookmark lists so they can select commonly used Web pages by touching one button on any touch-tone telephone.
While a telephone can't be made to display pictures, DICE will let a phone surfer mark material to be displayed later when he or she has access to a computer.
Siemens said its researchers are also working on a related project called Web-based Interactive Radio Environment (WIRE) that would allow the driver of a car to check e-mail and visit Web sites much as DICE does, but by way of a driver information system rather than a telephone. Siemens Corporate Research is working with the company's Automotive Systems Group to develop a prototype.
Reported By Newsbytes News Network: newsbytes.com |